#negative handprints

[paleolithic-art]

Panel of Negative Handprints, Red Panels Gallery, Chauvet cave

Aurignacian, 32,000 ybp

[paleolithic-art]

Negative Hands in Cosquer cave

Gravettian, 25,000 ybp

Note that some of these hands appear to be missing fingers. This feature is also prevalently found in Paleolithic sites in the Pyrénées and has long been believed to be some sort of widespread pathology or perhaps even self mutilation. Finding similar hands so far away in France throws doubt on that idea, as it’s unlikely that a pathology or culture of self mutilation would crop up in two locations separately. These prints were made by bending the fingers while the pigments was blown, not as a result of missing fingers.